Capacity crowds at Transcona Aquatic Centre show the need for similar waterparks in surrounding Winnipeg neighbourhoods.
Transcona Aquatic Centre opened on June 30. Since then thousands of people have visited the $5.8 million waterpark in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lines form an hour before the park opens and average daily attendance is 673, nearly double the maximum occupancy for any given time.
“They’re coming from all over Winnipeg … and outside the city as well,” says Councillor Russ Wyatt in a report from CBC News. “It tells me there’s a pent up demand.”
Wyatt plans to call for the establishment of a new capital reserve. This would fund the building of similar waterparks in other older city neighbourhoods. Five or six more waterparks on the lines of Transcona would be planned. The city would need to set aside $2.5 – 3 million a year over a period of ten years to fund the project.
Wyatt believes the city could save money by using the same design. “We now have the plans. We now have the designs,” he says. “We don’t have to pay for those soft costs all over again.”
The waterpark took three years to build. It has four water slides, an expanded spray pad and beach entry with mini geysers and shallow water spray features. There are 1-meter and 3-meter diving board.
Wyatt points out that older pools will need replacing in the next decade or so. “We might as well do it now,” he comments. “This was the first facility of its kind,” he adds. “Now that we’ve built it, we’ve shown it can be done, how popular it is and how it works.”
Wyatt believes the strong attendance makes a case for more waterparks, even in a city where the summers are generally short and hot weather isn’t a given. The new waterpark has the capacity to move visitors indoors during poor weather.
There is general support for Wyatt’s idea, right across party lines.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-water-parks-wyatt-1.4209040
